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| Manufacturers have to weigh sometimes competing factors when selecting
| Linux over Windows or a proprietary OS in consumer products. Often,
| the flexibility of Linux balances out those differences, sometimes
| it does not.
|
| Clearly, though, Linux's freedom and flexibility are driving the
| trend to putting Linux inside consumer products that are not
| encumbered with hardware restrictions. Manufacturers are not
| dependent on a single vendor with Linux.
|
| "Linux is a moving trend. More and more manufacturers are using
| it," concluded MontaVista's Ready.
|
| Yaghmour concurs. "Every engineer adapts it and expands the user
| base," he said. "Anybody who wants to enter the market is using
| Linux due to its low cost. It is hard to justify changing for a
| proprietary OS."
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,----[ Quote ]
| Looking ahead, 87% percent of Linux users plan to use Linux in their next
| project. In both cases, use of free distributions outnumbered use of paid
| distributions by a sizable margin. Â*
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